Active Flow Control over a NACA23012 Airfoil using Hybrid Jet

Abstract

A time-dependent numerical simulation is performed to examine the flow separation control with the action of a hybrid jet (the combination of synthetic and continuous jets) over a NACA23012 airfoil. The unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulation is performed with Spalart-Allmaras (SA) turbulence model to simulate the flow field around the airfoil to analyse the effect of the hybrid jet. A combined jet is placed at the point of flow separation on the upper surface of the airfoil which is located at the 12% of the chord length from the leading edge of the airfoil for a given flow configuration. Flow simulations are performed at a chord-based Reynolds number of 2.19 × 10⁶ for the hybrid jet oscillating frequency of 0.159 at a blowing ratio of 3.0. The contribution of the continuous jet in the hybrid jet is evident by the flow control. Variation in the continuous jet velocity is studied, which improved the aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoil. The maximum improvement in lift to drag ratio is observed from 11.19 to 22.14 at an angle of attack of 22 degree. The stall angle also shows an enhancement from 18 degree to 20 degree.